Beatrix Piesh
About the Artist
Beatrix J. Piesh is an American visual artist with Czechoslovakian roots. Born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, she received her Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava in 1983. She later left her birth country and a burgeoning art career, arriving in the United States as a political refugee in 1986.
That experience of separation continues to inform her work today.
Mixed Media Artist
Piesh has exhibited nationally and internationally throughout her career. Shortly after arriving in New York City, she presented a solo exhibition at the Lawrence Gallery, followed by an exhibition at the Corner Gallery in the World Trade Center. Her work has also been shown at the Trenton City Museum, Ellis Island Museum, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Dahesh Museum in New York City.
Internationally, her work has been exhibited in Slovakia, Japan, Greece and throughout Europe. Her solo exhibitions have included the Alena Adlung Gallery in SoHo, the Bohemian National Hall in Manhattan, and the Slovak Consulate General in New York City.
Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Ellis Island Museum, the United Nations Mission of the Slovak Republic, and the City Museum of Bratislava, as well as numerous private collections.
Piesh currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, where her studio is located at the Brooklyn Army Terminal as part of the chashama Workspace Program.
Artist Statement
Ordinary rituals are part of everyday life. Our personal rituals define who we are, what we value, what we strive for, and our dreams. Collectively, they define our culture, our times, and our society’s fears and hopes.
I am interested in exploring how ordinary, everyday rituals take on extraordinary meaning. I create work that layers and merges fragments of ritual experience with the elements of chance that infuse daily life with mystery, allowing us to interpret art according to our own dreams and desires.
My creative process mirrors the themes I am trying to explore. Through a combination of repetition and chance, meaning often emerges for me after the creation takes place. Then, I uncover it layer by layer, much as an archaeologist might put together a picture of a distant past society by uncovering fragments of their everyday lives and rituals.
